Chennai: Nearly five months have gone by since last season’s final in the United Arab Emirates. The 2021 Indian Premier League begins on Friday (April 9) in Chennai. Due to the ongoing pandemic situation, no team will play any games on their home ground. The venues selected are Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Bengaluru and Ahmedabad.
Defending champions Mumbai Indians will hope for a winning start as they take on fresh-looking Royal Challengers Bangalore at the MA Chidambaram Stadium. Both the sides are boasted with some of the cleanest hitters of this format with two skippers being the obvious talisman for their respective teams.
Mumbai, who were table-toppers last season have won eight of their last 10 meetings with Virat Kohli’s side and will hope to continue their dominance. They didn’t do much with their core at the players’ auction as they have acquired a kind of settled squad.
Besides skipper Rohit Sharma, the likes of Quinton de Kock, Suryakumar Yadav and Ishan Kishan will be the batters to watch. Since Rohit’s take over of the captaincy from Ricky Ponting midway through the 2013 season, Mumbai have been the team to beat in the tournament clinching five titles, the most by any side.
RCB on the other hand, added the likes of Glenn Maxwell and Kyle Jamieson to their armory in the auction. Despite having the big guns, they are yet to get their hands on the IPL trophy. The Kohli-led side have been in the finals thrice but were unable to reach the ultimate glory.
Last season though, they got to the playoffs but lost in the eliminator to Sunrisers Hyderabad. Before the start of the season, the skipper was quite optimistic about his side’s chances. Youngster Devdutt Padikkal rejoined the Royal Challengers squad after recovering from COVID-19. Finn Allen and Adam Zampa will probably be out as they are yet to complete their quarantine period after arriving in India.
